4 ms·

Deutsche Post. The problem is that the U.S. is full of bad ideas everywhere you look and most Americans just don't care. Republicans sabotage the public institu

by cmurf 6y ago

Deutsche Post. The problem is that the U.S. is full of bad ideas everywhere you look and most Americans just don't care. Republicans sabotage the public institutions to make them look bad so they can say government is bad/incompentent. And when things are privately held they demand no regulations because regulations are bad/incompetent/expensive to business. At least where there are examples of successful privatization, there's strong anti-fraud and competition laws. The U.S. also used to do that, but now hate on government, insist it is inherently incompetent and cannot ever be fixed, while deifying billionaires. Aristocracy is inherently incompatible with democracy, and by default the aristocrats win. The only non-violent way to beat them is free and fair elections.

MandieD 6y ago
Differences between Deutsche Post and the USPS: 1) They do not collect mail at houses or even street postboxes - you have to find a letterbox to drop your stamped letters, and those are less frequent than bus stops. My nearest two are about 400-500 meters away from my house in a neighborhood dense enough for an U-Bahn stop (and neither is at said U-Bahn stop). A good prompt for a walk for my able-bodied, middle-aged household, but hellaceously inconvenient for our 80+ year old neighbors. 2) A regular national letter is 0.80 EUR (US$0.94) in a country that does not have houses or small neighborhoods that are miles from anything else. 3) There are a few full service post offices that are also Postbank offices, but most parcel acceptance happens at shops that have DHL as a sideline. My city of 130,000 has two full service post offices, and one of them is only open 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00 (and of course that's the one I have to pick up parcels that won't fit into the automated lockers at...) Overall, privatized Deutsche Post is quite reliable, but its stability comes with trade-offs that the USPS is not allowed to make.

by cmurf 6y ago

MandieD 6y ago

Differences between Deutsche Post and the USPS: 1) They do not collect mail at houses or even street postboxes - you have to find a letterbox to drop your stamped letters, and those are less frequent than bus stops. My nearest two are about 400-500 meters away from my house in a neighborhood dense enough for an U-Bahn stop (and neither is at said U-Bahn stop). A good prompt for a walk for my able-bodied, middle-aged household, but hellaceously inconvenient for our 80+ year old neighbors. 2) A regular national letter is 0.80 EUR (US$0.94) in a country that does not have houses or small neighborhoods that are miles from anything else. 3) There are a few full service post offices that are also Postbank offices, but most parcel acceptance happens at shops that have DHL as a sideline. My city of 130,000 has two full service post offices, and one of them is only open 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00 (and of course that's the one I have to pick up parcels that won't fit into the automated lockers at...) Overall, privatized Deutsche Post is quite reliable, but its stability comes with trade-offs that the USPS is not allowed to make.